The Spy Who Came in From the Cold
August 22nd 2006 04:30
You can feel the grit and bitterness in every pore of John Le Carre's 'The Spy Who Came in from the Cold'... for a book written at the height of the cold war it sure isn't afraid to indulge in a more than healthy dose of cynicism. I've been feeling myself drawn to books in the spy/cold war genre for a while now and I guess I chose this book as the starting point in Le Carre's impressive bibliography because it's often cited as 'the book that changed the rules'.
Alec Leamas is a veteran British spy who has been operating out of Berlin for some years now. The book begins on the tail end of his time in East Germany, as Leamas watches his last contact make a pathetic bid for freedom only to be killed at the last minute. The operation has turned out to be a complete disaster. Leamas is tired of the whole dirty business... he decides to 'come in out of the cold', so to speak. The only problem is, he has very little money to live on after retiring. He life spirals away from respectability... he becomes a drunkard and a bum. German agents start to circle him. Defecting looks like a good option...
There's a lot more going on from page 1 then just that, but to explain any further would be to spoil the layers of subterfuge that make these kind of novels so good. Le Carre makes little attempt to attack communist idealogy, our hero Leamas is far too jaded and cynical to bother deconstructing socialist philosophy - and when he is called upon to defend British motivation he does so with very little enthusiasm. At times it can seem a bit too talky, or introspective, but this is part of Le Carre's trickery... when he delves into the backstory of certain characters he is sometimes revealing hidden events to the reader that changes our interpretation of what is happening. It's a book you have to pay attention to, for sure, and the payoff is impressive.
Le Carre is also a fine writer... his prose is as good as his plotting, and he writes well for a broad range of diverse characters. Even small and seemingly inconsequential characters are drawn in a realistic and memorable manner... it adds to the story's coldness, the crisp and in-depth descriptions give the book a kind of objectiveness that keeps you guessing right up to the very last paragraph.
As I mentioned at the beginning of this review, this is also the book that broke the rules... I can't comment too much on this as I'm not overly familiar with the genre but I think the ending probably goes a long way towards breaking the mould, as does Le Carre's muddying of the distinctions between the sides... his realistic protrayal of Cold War idealogy and the relationship between the West and the Communists has helped keep this book from becoming dated.
This book was also made into a film in the 60s, starring Richard Burton as Leamas - a role that gained him an Oscar nomination. I've been wanting to see this film for a while (being a fan of Burton's work) but since I haven't seen it around, well, that was another reason why I decided to give the book a crack. Glad I wasn't dissapointed!
| 70 |
| Vote |
Comment by JohnDoe
Film & TV on DVD
The film directed by Martin Ritt (Giant) and starring Richard Burton translates the novel to screen exceptionally well. Recommend it highly.